Evolution of DDoS Attacks

According to a recently released report from Kaspersky, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks for the third quarter of 2015 have given us a unique perspective on the future of DDoS trends. Attacks monitored during this period of time feature an attack sustained over 320 hours and include several noteworthy statistics. This includes, victims in a total of 79 countries, 45.6% of all attacks are linux-based botnets, severely increased number of attacks surpassing 150 hours, and much more.

One of the most interesting takeaways from this information is that the USA, China, and South Korea are the three most common sources and destinations for distributed denial of service attacks. In addition, despite the fact that there were a total of 79 countries that fell victim to these attacks, 91.6% of all victims are located in only ten different countries.

Evgeny Vigovsky, Head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection, also commented on the results from this report. He said, “Based on our observations and direct measurements, we cannot pinpoint one exact direction in which the underground business of DDoS attacks is moving. Instead, the threat appears to be growing everywhere. We have recorded highly complex attacks on banks, demanding a ransom, but have also observed new, low-cost methods designed to put a company’s operations down for a significant amount of time. Attacks are growing in volume with most of them aiming to attack, disrupt and disappear, but the number of lengthy attacks, capable of bankrupting a large, unprotected business is also on the rise. These significant developments make it imperative for companies to take measures to prevent the very real threat and increased risk posed by DDoS attacks”. Despite the seemingly unpredictable future of DDoS techniques, one thing is for certain, attacks will become simpler, cheaper, and more powerful as time continues.